A Texas Whataburger employee was fired Wednesday for refusing to serve two police officers in what the company is describing as an appalling incident.

Officers Michael Magovern and Cameron Beckham were working off-duty security at a construction site on I-35 early Wednesday morning when they decided to stop at the restaurant in Lewisville, FOX 26 reports.

Magovern said before he could even place his order, the man behind the counter told him “We don’t serve police officers.”

The two officers decided to leave and went and got food at Dairy Queen instead.

“We were appalled to hear of an employee refusing service to two officers, as we have proudly served first responders across our system for decades,” Whataburger said in a statement Wednesday. “As soon as we heard of this isolated incident, we began our own internal investigation overnight. The employee that refused service is no longer employed with Whataburger. We’ve also invited the officers back today so we can apologize in person and make this right.”

Magovern told Fox 26 that in “17 years as a firefighter and now 13 years as a police officer this is the first time this has ever happened to me.”